24-hrs a day for 5 days a week, when should i sleep ?

[habanero]

hi everyone ,


with years of experience in day-trading futures, i'm seriously considering switching to forex (the main attraction being: longer trading hours and multiple trading vehicles, each pair of forex appears a separate, though related, vehicle to me, that would mean a lot more opportunities to make a hit)

in fact i'm testing the water right now, with a real account, the gain is good (75% of the performance of futures trading in the first week), the system that i'm using for futures seems work well for forex

the thing is, technically, forex goes 24-hrs a day from monday morning to friday afternoon, that's well over 100 hrs non-stop per week

yes, this is the attraction i've just mentioned, but it also turns out to have an entirely different implication ...

it's not hard to imagine what the life i'm living when an alert (the entry or exit signals) will blast off at 3 o'clock in the morning and the next one at 5:30am and all the way til end of friday ... (mind you, this is one alarm clock that you'll never need the snooze button 'cos you'll always jump out of bed and shoot straight to the trading room when it goes off :cheesy::cheesy::cheesy

it's been only a couple of weeks

but i'm sure if this continues, i'll be going nuts, not to mention that i might start losing money in futures

i wonder how you guys manage to cope with such non-stop money exchange game

any thought, please ?

 

[trendie]

you cant stay up all night, so you have to pick the best times.

look at the charts on an hourly and see where the main volatility is.
where are the main strong moves? (most pips in least time)
when does the market seem to flatline most often? (sleep time)

what you will find is you prefer a "session", and away you go.

the euro session is from about 7am, for a few hours. (of biggish activity)
then theres the US session from about 1pm for a few hours.

read some threads here, eg, 3-Ducks, and theres a new one from FX-Pimp and danarm(??) they trade from about 7-am to about 11-am.
keep an eye on them - might be useful.

learn to switch off as well - you need to recharge.
good luck.

 

[shadowninja]

Wot 'e sed.

 

[westernforce]

Hey Chilli man, pick a time / session that suites you best, trade that while learning this market and work it out from there.

Your experience in the futures should help you cut the wheat from the chaff

 

[habanero]

thanks guys,


yes indeed i can't do it all day and catch all signals, not all of them are profitable anyway

i guess i'll simply give up the range during the quiet hours and concentrate on doing the trends (those short bursts)

after all, forex and futures are not exactly the same species, even from a day-trader's point of view

 

[wrmeeker]

From U.S. perspective, volatility and hence day-trading opportunities are higher during the European session (2 AM - 12 PM EST) and the morning portion of the US session (8 AM - 12 PM EST). So the best time to day trade, IMHO, would be during the overlap of these two sessions, or 8 AM - 12 PM EST. That should get you some sleep time as well as afternoons off.

 

[bentoet]

I just trade when U.S session which the volality is higher

 

[habanero]

yesterday i got myself some historical data (15-min bars) over the last 12 mths for JPY, CHF, EUR and GBP, big database files

and i find that, when there's a general sense of the movement, there's really no certain quiet period and busy period ...

i mean, the alerts for short bursts might still go off early in the morning, and this is one signal that i find it so hard to pass

i'll still get up, rush into the room, make the entry, assign a stop, have another alert for a possible profitable exit, etc.
and if by then there's another burst ... omg ...

more signals might be good for wealth, but definitely not for health

there's no easy solution to this yet ... hmm ...

i'm sure you guys also have such almost-impossible-to-pass-signals right ?

what do you do if it happens at 3:22 am ? do you simply turn off your computer before bed ?

 

[wrmeeker]

yesterday i got myself some historical data (15-min bars) over the last 12 mths for JPY, CHF, EUR and GBP, big database files

and i find that, when there's a general sense of the movement, there's really no certain quiet period and busy period ...

i mean, the alerts for short bursts might still go off early in the morning, and this is one signal that i find it so hard to pass

i'll still get up, rush into the room, make the entry, assign a stop, have another alert for a possible profitable exit, etc.
and if by then there's another burst ... omg ...

more signals might be good for wealth, but definitely not for health

there's no easy solution to this yet ... hmm ...

i'm sure you guys also have such almost-impossible-to-pass-signals right ?

what do you do if it happens at 3:22 am ? do you simply turn off your computer before bed ?

As Trendie wrote above, I found that I have to unplug and recharge. In fact, I do turn off my computer before I go to bed.

Most pairs tend to be rangebound between 12 PM EST and 12 AM EST, so day-trading for me is best during the U.S. and London overlap time in the morning. That being said, I tend to my longer-term trend trades on an EOD basis in the late afternoon here in California, which coincides with the opening of the Tokyo session.

 

[nine]

The best time to sleep lets you wake for opening of the European markets. I think you want to be ready and have spent 15 minutes checking out the markets by 8am Frankfurt. Stop trading either from the beginning of the US afternoon or on globex close as thats the most "real" end of the day for currencies (5pm est?).

That way you can trade the European morning trend. This is often one of the nicest times to trade forex with a nice trend and lacking the shocks that the market gets for US opening with the big noisy US news announcements.


Actually midday est = 5pm london so trading from 7am to 5pm would seem a reasonable prescription if you are trading sub 60 minute bars. If you trade 60min or 240min then you aren't trading as intensely so a longer day would seem reasonable as long as you can switch off and sleep after the last decision.

 

[westernforce]

Overall there has to be a work life balance. Trade to live, not the other way around. The beauty of doing this is that it must give you the freedom to do things you want. :clap::clap:

Don't be tied to the work, trading day and night Enjoy it.